Ker govt to collaborate with startups through its proposals

The Kerala government has offered to collaborate with startups by opening up a wide array of opportunities for a range of e-services of various departments, a concept which received instant pat from the Google India Chief.
The proposal was made on the "Demand Day", claimed to be the first such initiative in the country, held as part of the ongoing conclave of the Kerala Startup Mission at UL Cyber Park,here.
Lauding the concept,Rajan Anandan, MD and Vice President (South East Asia), Google India, tweeted that he was amazed to see Keralas focus on "Building for India", a release from the KSUM said.

Nine government departments - Excise, Fire and Rescue, Forest, Housing Board, KTDC, KSITM, Labour, MVD and Social Justice came up with their demands before the startup community, it said.
Taking up the challenge, about 40 startup ventures came forward to crack the challenge posed by these departments.
Under the initiative, authorized government departments and agencies can now directly place work orders with startups under KSUM for developing applications at a costnot exceeding Rs five lakh.

Startups that are keen to seize the opportunity should be certified by the KSUM and the departments cannot buy more than two apps from the same venture, the cost of each order not exceeding Rs five lakh, the release said.

The apps should have multi-lingual support and work smoothly in an entry level smart phone with 3G connectivity besides ensuring safe and secure mechanism for the data in the app.
Kerala Startup Mission CEO, Saji Gopinath pointedout that the "demand day" will be a complimentary platform for both the government departments and and startups.